Editor’s Note
Cameroon’s diamond production saw a significant surge in 2024, nearly doubling its output from the previous year. This data, announced at a Kimberley Process meeting, highlights a notable shift in the country’s mining sector.
In 2024, Cameroon recorded a diamond production of 6,219.8 carats. The figure was revealed on January 16, 2025, in Yaoundé, during a meeting of the Kimberley Process Certification System, chaired by the interim Minister of Mines, Fuh Calistus Gentry.
The production of this precious stone in 2024 nearly doubles that of the previous year. According to the same source, in 2023, only 3,305.8 carats of diamonds were produced in Cameroon.
Benefiting from a year-on-year production increase of nearly 100%, diamonds generated revenues totaling nearly 120 million CFA francs for Cameroon in 2024. However, this windfall does not reflect the potential revenue the country could earn from this precious stone, as the bulk of shipments are typically sold through traffickers, according to official sources.
As evidence, while the national permanent secretariat of the Kimberley Process announced exports of 654 carats in 2019, for example, this body responsible for tracing diamonds produced in the country simultaneously stated that it had managed to trace a production of just over 1,595 carats throughout that year. It is highly likely that the missing shipments, amounting to nearly 950 carats, may have ended up in informal export channels, especially since the processing of this precious stone is virtually non-existent in Cameroon.
